Sadamasa Motonaga “Change/Continuity: New York 1966-67”

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Fergus McCaffrey presents a solo exhibition of Gutai artist Sadamasa Motonaga (1922–2011), surveying a pivotal decade of bold and experimental work by the artist between 1962–72.

Beginning at the height of Motonaga’s period of formalist abstraction in 1962, the exhibition follows the artist to New York where he altered key components of his practice, turning toward a newly discovered airbrush technique. Upon returning to Japan, he restored his earlier style of painting pictograms and anthropomorphic forms modeled in luminous airbrush and Japanese ink.

Fergus McCaffrey’s presentation shows Motonaga at the crux of Japanese art’s postwar trajectory, transitioning from existential and modernist concerns, embodied in Gutai, toward a new style of apolitical expression that combined aspects of children’s art and Japanese anime.